Charles Leclerc flags unseen 'mistake' in Max Verstappen fight: 'I always thought it was a one-off'

Charles Leclerc has revealed he missed a window to attack Max Verstappen in the opening laps of the Singapore Grand Prix, after holding back his battery deployment while the Red Bull driver struggled with energy issues at Marina Bay.

Leclerc finished second behind Verstappen, seven seconds back, securing his first podium since the summer break.

The Ferrari driver had earlier beaten Verstappen's getaway off the line, pulling alongside the Dutchman before the Red Bull driver held the position through the opening corners.

Discussing the start, Leclerc said he had little time to process the situation as it unfolded.

"You don't have much time to think in those moments," Leclerc told media, including RacingNews365. "I just saw that Max had a bit of a difficult start. I had quite a good start, so I went alongside him.

"Then there wasn't much space anymore, but I would have done exactly the same. And yeah, then it's quite tricky. I mean, I was on the left, a little bit behind him, couldn't see the panels on the right, so you lose a little bit of all your references because that's normally on the right that you have your references to brake.

"I tried to judge it in the best possible way, but Max managed to keep that first place."

Hesitation over deployment

Leclerc also pointed to a missed opportunity in the laps that followed, when Verstappen's RB22 appeared to suffer deployment problems exiting Marina Bay's long straights.

The Monegasque driver admitted he held his own energy reserves in check, unsure whether the issue would recur.

"And then there were a few opportunities in the first three laps when Max had the deployment issue, but I always thought that it was a one-off, so I wasn't really using my battery, which maybe was a mistake," Leclerc revealed.

"And when I was realising that he had no power at the end of the straight, I couldn't do anything. It was too late for me to use my power.

"But I don't know if it would have changed much. Maybe, of course, for the first stint it would have helped, but I think eventually they just had too much pace for us."